


A Whole New Ball of Wax

by Elri



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Annoying Ghost, Gen, Ghost Drifting, Ghost Mollymauk Tealeaf, Haunting, M/M, Molly being Molly, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-01-25 18:09:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21360499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elri/pseuds/Elri
Summary: Molly died a few years ago and has been stuck in this stupid apartment ever since. When Caleb moves in, Molly has a few opinions on the matter.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Fjord, Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Mollymauk Tealeaf & Caleb Widogast, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast, The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast, Veth Brenatto/Yeza Brenatto
Comments: 62
Kudos: 245





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this as a short story for my creative writing class last fall. It's been adapted and added to to fit the story I'm telling now. Hope you like it!
> 
> Title is from "Ball of Wax" from the musical Ghost

Oh great, a new person moving in. When are they going to just tear this place down already? Get me out of here! Hey buddy, I didn’t see you tour the place so I hope you looked at pictures online. I don’t want to hear any complaints about the mess, you got that? Either you were too stupid to look into where you were moving, or you knew what you were getting into. I will knock your shit over and let you blame the cat, do not test me. Your shoes are hideous, by the way, when there’s more duct tape than shoe it’s time to bite the bullet and get a different pair. Look I get being cheap but that doesn’t mean you can’t still look good.

Ok, your cat is cute, I’ll give you that much. He also doesn’t hiss at me like the neighbor’s cat does so that’s nice. You might want to patch up some of the holes in the ceiling before he gets himself stuck up there; he’ll probably come out totally grey too, apparently no one dusts in the ceiling even when there are holes all over the place. I would help but I’m kinda noncorporeal and oh yeah, I don’t want to be here…your cat is judging me now, I don’t appreciate that. Look, Fluffybutt, it’s not my fault I’m stuck like this. You try being a ghost for five years with no one from your own species knowing you’re there and see how well you do.

You really need new TV shows to watch; you know this is actually scripted and edited to all hell right? Look I went to high school, I know people can be really dramatic, but this is just ridiculous. Turn on a sitcom or something I’m begging you. I don’t care how many straight white men were involved, anything would be better than this. Watch, he’s going to cheat on her, he’s totally lying to her face; if you get upset when he’s finally revealed to be a douche I’m going to turn your hot water off.

Hey, are you ever going to unpack; you’ve been here for like a month. Come on, I want to judge your taste in books and movies! I can’t do that if it’s all in boxes, there are no lights in boxes and I can’t see in the dark. Also, you should at least unpack your clothes so you’re not just wearing the same three outfits over and over again. And so your cat stops using the clothes boxes as a bed; I mean I know you’re going to have cat hair on everything anyways but you’re not doing yourself a favor. They at least have a shot in a dresser or a wardrobe.

This paper-plate/plastic-utensils lifestyle is not conducive to quality living my fleshy friend. I know you have kitchen supplies, I can read your box labels, what’s the deal here? You are so lucky I’m not solid and therefore can’t trip over the boxes because you would not hear the end of it. Also, speaking of a quality lifestyle, why do you eat so much junk? I had no idea there were so many microwaveable options, I mean _wow_. What’s it going to be tonight? Microwave pizza? Microwave potpie? Oh! Microwave Mac & Cheese? Been a while since you’ve had that. There might even be some frost burnt veggies you can heat up to add to it.

Yo, dude, lady, whatever the fuck you identify as, human! I know it’s the weekend but you have a cat you need to feed. He’s yelling at you, I know you can hear him. Can’t you? Hey, hey! Come on, you’ve gotta get up.

What is it going to take to get you out of bed??? Alright you know what, this calls for something a little drastic. Hang in there, Senor Furpants, I’m coming.

Look Whisker-Face, I’m sorry you’re getting in trouble for me knocking over your bowl, but what was I supposed to do? Let you starve? You’re welcome!

Look, human, I know, I _know_ you can’t see or hear or feel me, I am _painfully_ aware of this fact, I have been ignored for _five years_; but _please _for the love of mercy turn on something else. You are _rotting_ your brain with this “reality show” bullshit. If there is any higher power in the universe, grant me now the power to change the channel.

Holy shit! I didn’t think that would work! Oh hey, this is a really good movie. Like normally I hate rom-coms but this one’s pretty good. The douchebag gets punched in the end and it’s _so_ satisfying. Go get popcorn, I want to live vicariously through you. Or you can stay in your blanket bundle over there… I don’t think you moved at all when I changed the channel. You’re still alive, right? There’s only room for one ghost in this house and you’re look-…I mean no one’s looking at me, but I’m still here.

Hey, you’ve been in the bathroom for a while now and I don’t really want to spectrally violate your privacy but Tail of Despereaux and I are getting worried. Man I wish I’d learned how to open doors, I’d let the cat in to yell at you through the bathroom door. Ok, what can I knock over this time? Oh! Maybe I can knock!

Wait did you actually hear that? Awesome! See, Kitten Little, what would you do without me.

Whoa…are you ok? You look like you were just majorly crying. Is that… those are a lot of scars. No fresh ones, which I guess is good… I’ve been kind of a dick, huh?

Okay, if my theory is correct, I might be able to mess with your phone the same way I messed with your TV. I know you can’t hear me, but I figured if I told you anyways it would help with my cosmic karma or whatever. Let’s see, the last person you texted is someone named Beau Lionett, and they sent you a middle finger emoji. Sounds like an unpleasant person, I like them. I’m guessing since you added a last name that their name is Beau, and not that they are your beau. Either way, let’s see what I can do.

It’s calling, I am a ghost god! Caleb, is that your name? Nice to meet you, I’m Mollymauk, you can call me Molly. Gotta yell a little louder, Beau, Caleb’s in another room.

Look at that, you’re actually talking to another person, I’m so proud of you. Ooo is company coming over? Excellent! I promise I’ll stay out of the way, after I obnoxiously make observations about all of them.

You have a nice group of friends. And look, no more boxes everywhere. I think Jester did something weird with your books, but she was an absolute delight. And the short one, Nott, she acts like the mom friend but I can tell a chaos maker a mile away. Beau was about what I expected, she definitely cares about you but really sucks at showing it. Fjord needs to stop touching things, period. He’s very nice, not bad looking too if you’re into that (and I’m pretty sure Jester is), but just a little disaster prone. I have to admit, I got a weird vibe from Caduceus. He’s super chill, reminds me of someone I used to know who smoked a _lot_ of weed, but it felt like he knew I was there. All in all, great meeting them, hope to see them again soon.

Hey, whatcha got there? Smells kinda funny, and I don’t usually smell things. Ooo sage, candles, are you planning a fancy dinner? Are you finally going to have company? I promise I’ll stay in another room, I don’t want to intrude on your date.

Are you putting sage in an ashtray? What the- aaand now it’s on fire…

… I mean I don’t want to break your concentration because you seem to be really intent on whatever you’re doing but I’m very lost here.

Any ideas, Pawfficer Mouse-Catcher?

“Did you just call my cat ‘Pawfficer Mouse-Catcher’?”

“…can you hear me?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly and Caleb finally have a real talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a direct continuation of the previous chapter. I don't know how much of a thing this is going to turn into, my priority is the college AU I'm working on, but it might get updated every now and then

“This is excellent,” Moly sat down cross-legged across from Caleb, “It’s been years since I’ve had an actual conversation with anyone other than myself. And the building cats. Can you see me at all or just hear me?”

“Uh, just hear.” Caleb stared in the direction of Molly’s voice. “Forgive me, I didn’t think this would actually work, but I thought it was worth a try.”

“Well I for one am very glad you did. What made you think of this?”

“My friend, Caduceus…”

“Tall one? Pink hair?”

“Ja.”

“He knew about this kind of thing huh?”

“Ja.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised honestly, very nice guy, very odd too.”

“Ja, he is… who are you?”

“Where are my manners? Mollymauk Tealeaf, Molly to my friends.”

“Caleb. Widogast.”

“Pleasure. So, what now?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t expect this to work.”

“Did Caduceus happen to mention if this would be a permanent thing or are you going to have to light one up every time you want to talk to me?”

“He was really quite vague about what could happen.”

“And yet you tried it anyways. My aren’t you a daredevil.” Since Caleb couldn’t see him wink, Molly tried to put as much flirty tone into his voice as possible. It must’ve worked seeing as Caleb’s ears turned pink and he looked away, rubbing at his arms. That reminded Molly of what he’d seen before, but that wasn’t the kind of thing you asked about the first time you officially meet your human roommate.

“How did you get stuck here?” Caleb asked, redirecting the conversation.

“I think I died here. Not entirely sure to be honest, I just sort of woke up in this place. I know I used to live here, though I’m not entirely sure it was legally if I’m honest.”

“What do you remember?”

“I was… friends with some shady people. ‘Every man for himself’ type friends. When shit went down, we got scarce, and woe to whoever didn’t get scarce enough. This is where I would come to hide, I guess I wasn’t careful enough.”

“What did you and your friends do?”

“Mostly just mild vandalism and recreational drug use. We thought we were more hardcore than we were. I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting…”

“If you’d like, one of my friends can look up your record.”

“Good luck with that.”

“What do you mean?”

“… my name isn’t really Mollymauk, but I don’t know what it was. I picked it one day because a guy who lived here for a few months listened to this one song a lot.”

“Why Tealeaf?”

“He and his friends would do tea leaf readings in the apartment. I think they were carnies. Lively bunch, lots of fun. I guess I just wanted to hold onto them a little.”

“They were strangers, but they meant that much to you?”

“I never said I made sense.”

“Considering I’m talking to the ghost that has been haunting my apartment and bothering my cat, I’m beginning to rethink what’s supposed to make sense.”

“Hey it’s not my fault cats can see me. Besides, I think Kitty Kitty Bang Bang likes me.”

“Frumpkin.”

“Pardon?”

“His uh, his name is Frumpkin. I thought you should know.”

Molly laughed, delighted, “Because that’s a much more normal name. Honestly you’ve been missing out on my purrfect nicknames.”

“Ja, I’m sure.” Caleb’s tone only slightly changed but Molly could sense the sarcasm underneath. This guy was turning out to be more fun than he thought. “I hesitate to ask what kind of names you came up with for me and my friends.”

“Well to be perfectly honest I didn’t know what yours was until I heard Beau say it over the phone, up until then I was mentally referring to you as the missing Weasley sibling. Speaking of books, Candy Chaos did something funny when she was shelving them, not sure if you noticed.”

“You mean Jester? She sorted them so that along the spines it would occasionally spell out ‘dick.’”

Molly threw his head back laughing, “That’s the best! How were those cupcakes she brought over? They looked delicious.”

“They were very good. Jester is a master baker.”

The unexpectedness of it and Caleb’s deadpan delivery set Molly off again. It took him a good minute to recover and when he did he could see Caleb almost smiling. “Was that a joke?”

“Uh, no.”

“Shame, it was a damn good one.”

“You did remind me, are you the one who messed with the TV? And my phone?”

“Guilty. Honestly, I didn’t know I could until it happened, and you’re lucky it just changed the channel. You have _got_ to stop watching so much reality television.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. What about my phone?”

“After the TV incident I wanted to see if I could do it with another electronic device.”

“So you called Beau?”

“She was the last person you’d texted and…”

“And what?”

“I figured if you talked to someone it might help.”

Caleb sat back, eyes blinking rapidly, “What do you mean?”

“It took me a while to notice because I was pretty wrapped up in being a selfish prick but it seemed like you were having a rough time. I don’t want to pry into your business, goodness knows we’re all entitled to our secrets, but if there was something I could do then it was worth a shot.”

“Why?”

“Because… I know a thing or two about not caring about yourself, and even though I don’t know what happened I can’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t be here if I had cared more. So even if it’s too late for me, it’s not for you, and even if you can’t care about yourself right now… maybe I can.”

Caleb didn’t say anything for a long time. Molly wanted to look at him but also was afraid of what he’d see so instead he looked at Frumpkin who had long since gotten bored with what they were doing and lay sleeping on the couch behind Caleb. The steady breathing of the cat helped calm Molly down as he waited for Caleb to respond.

“This is a lot to think about,” Caleb finally said. “I’m going to need some time to figure things out.”

“Of course. I’ll hang out in another area for a while. We’re going to have to make house rules aren’t we?”

“Probably a good idea, now that I know you’re really here.”

“Until next time then. It was nice meeting you, Caleb Widogast.”

“And you, Mollymauk Tealeaf.”

“Toodles. See ya ‘round Frumpkin Spice Latte.”


	3. Chapter 3

It was a few days before Caleb talked to Molly again. Molly tried to give him some distance, some privacy, but it wasn’t easy when they were both living in a small apartment and he couldn’t leave. Caleb was quiet, quieter than usual if that were possible, and Molly could tell he was doing a lot of thinking. Molly wanted to talk to him, like he had been, but everything was different now. Even though Caleb still couldn’t hear him, he knew Molly was there.

But less than a week later Caleb was lighting candles and sage in the living room again. “Mollymauk? Are you there?”

“As ever.” Molly sat down across from Caleb. “So, what’s been going on in that head of yours?”

“Well, as you said it’s probably good if we establish some house rules. We may not be able to talk with each other all the time but we are… both here.”

Molly grinned, “You were about to say living together, weren’t you?”

“… I’ve come up with a few of my own but you are welcome to make suggestions as well, of course.”

“Of course. I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought of any, you start and I’ll jump in if I come up with something.”

“Okay. First, no more calling people on my phone. I understand that you were trying to help, but it’s still an invasion of my privacy.”

“Understood.”

“Second, just so it’s on the record, please stay out of my bedroom and the bathroom.”

Molly grinned, “I won’t pretend it won’t be a challenge, but I'll do my best.”

Caleb started to blush but kept going. “Third, please don’t knock things over to get my attention.”

“Can do, especially since I figured out how to knock.”

That got Caleb’s attention, “Do you know any Morse code? I learned some once at... as a student.”

Molly decided to brush past the odd way Caleb had said that, he’d do his prying a little bit at a time. “I in fact do not. And I'm also a terrible speller so even if I did I don’t know how much it would help.”

“We’ll figure something out then. I can talk to Caduceus and see if he has any suggestions.”

“That reminds me, when your friends come over are you alright with me hanging around or would you prefer I keep a bit of a distance?

“First I'm going to have to figure out how to explain this to them, and then we’ll see how they feel about it.”

“They don’t already know?”

“Only Caduceus knows. I talked to him first when I realized I couldn’t keep ignoring the weird things going on, because I knew he’d at least hear me out even if he didn’t believe me.”

“And now here we are. I wonder if he’s not a witch,” Molly mused.

“At this point I wouldn’t be surprised. His family does run a small herb shop, all locally grown.”

“Any crystals?”

“A few.”

Yep. “Witches.”

Caleb nodded, “Probably.”

“Oh! I just thought of a rule! No more trashy reality television. I don’t care if you watch the world’s stupidest sitcoms or nothing but Jeopardy, no more ‘reality’ TV.”

“Alright,” Caleb said with a small smile, “I think I can manage that one.”

“Excellent. Any others?”

“That’s all I had on my end. If something comes up, I know how to reach you.”

“When do you think the last time a roommate meeting went this smoothly was?”

“It’s still early yet, Mollymauk, don’t jinx us.”

“I’m already dead, I'm not worried about jinxes.”

“Well I am not, so let’s try to keep the supernatural shenanigans to a minimum, ja?”

“If you insist. In that case I'll cancel the demon rave, it was probably just going to be Ivan and his friends again and y’know there’s only so many times you can hear the same stories about their greatest hits before it gets boring.”

The way Caleb was looking at him, it was clear he wasn’t 100% sure Molly was joking. “Doesn’t sound like a very lively bunch.”

For someone who acted like he didn’t have a sense of humor, Caleb had a knack for making Molly laugh. “ No I suppose not. By the way I've been meaning to ask, were you not informed that someone had died in this apartment? My understanding is that that’s a requirement or something.”

“To be honest, I was so relieved to find a place close to work for a good price that, even if the landlord did say something about it, I probably wasn’t paying attention.”

“Fair enough. What  _ do _ you do for a living?”

“There’s a small bookstore not far from here. It's mostly second-hand, we occasionally get new releases but that’s not really the appeal of the shop.”

“I’ve never been much of a reader but I do remember liking the smell of books. There’s something comforting about it. I think it’s because libraries are a nice place to find a corner to take a nap in. There was this one librarian, don’t remember her name but I can see her face, nicest person you’ll ever meet until you tick her off; anyways she let me use one of their back conference rooms in exchange for help around the library. Mostly dusting and that sort of thing, I wasn’t very good at shelving.”

“Do you remember what library it was?”

“ Y’know I'm not sure I ever knew the name of it, but it was near a park and it had this painted sculpture of a book in front of it. Nice park too, good place to sleep when it wasn’t cold outside. Had to be sneaky though, cops patrolled the area.”

“It sounds like you spent a lot of time sleeping in odd places.”

“Seems that way doesn’t it? Not sure why -I mean, obviously I was homeless or something but I don’t remember the details of the why. It's funny though, I didn’t remember the library until you moved in and brought all your books with you. I think that was a long time ago, much earlier in my life. Feels nice to know something new.”

“I’m glad I was able to help; perhaps we’ll be able to bring back more memories. Right now, however, I do have to get to work, so I should probably put out the fire hazard. Until next time,  Mollymauk .”

“See  ya , Caleb.”


	4. Chapter 4

A few nights later Caleb lit the candles and the sage in the living room and settled onto the couch with his microwaved dinner. “Mollymauk?”

“Here.” Molly sat on the couch next to him, claiming a spot before  Frumpkin could. “You know you could just call me Molly. What’s up?”

“I was about to watch  _ Jeopardy _ and wondered if you wanted to join me to yell answers at the screen.”

“Did you pick  _ Jeopardy _ to make a point about how you’re not watching reality trash?”

“Well, I do also enjoy it from time to time.”

“Let’s go for it then. I warn you, I'm generally terrible at this.”

“That’s half the fun of it, no?”

It was... fun, in its own weird way. If not for the fact that Molly was noncorporeal and also invisible, it was almost like just hanging out with a friend watching TV. He had a number of comments about the contestants and what they were wearing, as well as the ‘interesting’ facts they shared about themselves in the interviews, but he generally tried to keep his commentary to the commercial breaks. 

“Have you ever noticed,” Molly said at one point, “That Alex  Trebek can be a shady motherfucker?”

“ How do you mean?”

“When there’s a returning champion, especially when it’s a multi-episode winner, Alex will sometimes say something like ‘our two challengers have come to see if they can break that streak, let’s see what happens,’ and the way he says it you get the feeling he has zero faith in them. There are also times when someone shares a ‘fun fact’ about themselves, and you can just tell that the poor man is doing everything he can to stay polite and not judge them.”

“I had not noticed that. But I have noticed that every time there’s a daily double, it’s introduced with ‘answer.’ So he says ‘answer: daily double.’”

“Every time?”

“Every time.”

“I wonder if he does it on purpose, or if it’s just become a habit at this point.”

The Double Jeopardy round brought an Opera category, which Molly loudly booed, as well as a Seas category, during which he guessed Red Sea every time on the off chance that it would be right. It never was. Final Jeopardy ended up being European Poets, which Caleb got before Alex had even finished reading the clue. Molly hummed along to the theme music while they waited to find out if Caleb was right (spoiler: he was), gently batting at  Frumpkin’s tail hanging over the side of the couch in time to the music.  Frumpkin for the most part ignored him, just turning his head so that he was facing away, but Caleb was strangely amused by watching his cat’s tail get moved around by a force he couldn’t see. 

As the credits rolled over Alex talking to the contestants, current champion still reigning, Caleb got up to put his plate in the dishwasher, calling over his shoulder, “We can watch the news if you want, otherwise go ahead and see if you can find something on another channel. Try not to  short out the TV though.”

Molly flipped around for a little bit, managing to find an  _ America’s Funniest Home Videos _ marathon. He returned to the couch to enjoy watching people fail in epic and hilarious ways, sitting up cross-legged to give the screen his full attention. Caleb sat back down as well, curling up against the arm of the couch.

As the intro started, Molly piped up, “Can I just say, Tom Bergeron could get it.”

Caleb looked up from where he'd started dozing on the couch,  Frumpkin now pressed up against him, towards the general direction of Molly, “Pardon?” 

“I mean look at him, the man’s a silver fox; and I know he’s got a teleprompter in front of him but there’s something about him where you can just tell that he’s also genuinely funny on his own. Personally, I appreciate a person who can make me laugh, and it certainly doesn’t hurt if they’re nice to look at too.” 

Caleb hummed with something that sounded like an agreeing tone. "I read somewhere once that people who can laugh together, especially in intimate moments, tend to form stronger relationships."

"I can totally see that. A person's sense of humor is like half of who they are, if their partner or hell, even their friend isn't compatible with that, do you really know each other? I mean just look at inside jokes, the very concept implies a certain level of familiarity that is unique to those people. And as far as laughing during sex, if you think about what you’re doing just a second too long, it’s fucking funny, so I would certainly hope you could laugh at that.”

Caleb didn’t seem to have a response to that, he just smiled and shook his head before laying back down. An episode had passed when Molly looked over to make a comment about something on the screen, and saw that Caleb had fallen asleep. Quietly, a pretty easy feat, Molly got up and turned off the TV. The next problem was putting out the candles, since he didn’t want to wake Caleb but also didn’t want to leave them burning all night. It took a few tries, but he managed to use whatever spectral energy he had to blow them out; he could only hope the sage would take care of itself and not suddenly turn into a raging inferno. 

Since he had nothing else to do, Molly decided to stay and keep an eye on it. He sat on the floor in front of the couch instead of back in his previous spot, that way if Caleb stretched out in his  sleep he wouldn’t accidentally kick Molly. Not that it hurt, mind you, but the awareness that someone was going through him was uncomfortable to think about. 

As Molly was sitting there,  Frumpkin blearily opened his eyes and meowed at him. “Shh. I know he’ll probably be uncomfortable in the morning but if we wake him now who knows how much sleep he’ll  get. I'll just be here a little longer, make sure the sage doesn’t catch your whiskers on fire, okay Teddy  Frumpkin ?”

Frumpkin meowed again, a little quieter, and tucked his head back under his tail with a content sigh. Next to him, Caleb shifted a little in his sleep, but didn’t wake up. It was strange seeing him like this, he didn’t look nearly as guarded. Even before Caleb had known Molly was around, he tended to walk around the apartment with his walls up, like even in his own space he didn’t feel comfortable. It had gotten a little better after everyone had helped unpack his things, but since First Contact they’d taken a bit of a step back. Molly couldn’t blame him really, it’s hard enough having regular roommates let alone one you could never be sure where he was. He reached out, instinctively going to move some hair out of Caleb’s face, but stopped himself. Since it looked like the sage was safe, Molly got up and moved to the kitchen so Caleb could have his space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that the opinions of the characters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author. That being said, Alex Trebek knows how to throw shade I'm just saying


	5. Chapter 5

“ Mollymauk !” Caleb called as he walked into the apartment, “I have something, come see.”

“ Ooo surprises.” Molly walked into the kitchen and knocked on the table twice to let Caleb know he was there. “Let’s see, brown paper bag but too twisted on top to be alcohol, a weird scent lingering in the air, my my what have you gotten into?”

Caleb opened up the bag and pulled out a large, light blue candle that looked like it had herbs and stuff mixed into it. “I stopped by Caduceus’s to get some more sage, since we were running out, and he pulled this out instead. It's something he apparently started working on after I told him we’d started talking. If it works, it should replace the candles and sage we’ve been using. It is very experimental though, so we shouldn’t get our hopes up.”

“You say experimental like it’s a bad thing,” Molly said, unheard as Caleb started looking for the matches. “Personally, I think that with the right person and the right precautions in place, experimentation can be a lot of fun.”

“Alright,” Caleb said, unknowingly cutting off any further suggestive commentary Molly had to offer, “I know you’re probably talking already, but as I light this just start rambling or something so I know if it starts working.”

“I can do you one better.  _ I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to start a flame in your heart. In my heart I have but one desire, and that one is you, no other will do. I've lost all ambition for worldly  _ _ acclaim, _ _ I just want to be- _ ”

“Isn’t that song from World War II?” Caleb interrupted again, this time perfectly aware of it, “How old  _ are _ you?”

“Not nearly that old, fret not, the carnies used to play it on their record player. It seemed fitting for the occasion. I take it you can hear me then?”

“Ja, very clearly. Caduceus will be glad to hear it.”

“And the only commentary you have on my performance is to critique my choice of song? You wound me, Caleb Widogast.” Molly lay across the table dramatically, aware that only  Frumpkin could see him and that he was getting major feline judgement.

Caleb sent a bemused look in Molly’s direction, looking up from rummaging in his bag, “My apologies, you have a very nice singing voice, Mollymauk.”

“ You’re so kind,” Molly drawled, rising from his sprawl to watch as Caleb pulled a small pile of books out of his bag. “ Ooo , what’s that?"

“Research.”

“I would ask if it’s for business or pleasure, but I get the feeling that, for you, research is always a pleasure.”

“Usually,” Caleb agreed, smiling a little as he laid the books out for Molly to see. “I asked Caduceus if he had any suggestions for where I could find more information on cohabitation with a ghost, he directed me to his aunt who gave me these.”

“They actually have manuals for this sort of thing?” Molly craned his neck to look at some of the symbols embossed on the cover of one of the books. “You have to hand it to  witches, they’ve been around for a good long time and they have the work to show for it.”

“Of a sort, they didn’t exactly have  _ Ghost Roommates for Dummies _ but Aunt Corrin said these should have enough collective information for me to find the answers I need. And if not, I can return with any questions.”

Molly grinned, “Aunt Corrin? Getting familiar with the family are we?”

“She insisted,” Caleb said, “I tried to call her Ms. Clay but she wouldn’t let me. She may be an older woman but she’s no pushover.”

“Bless her.”

“She’s apparently had much less luck getting Fjord to do the same,” Caleb casually mentioned while moving the books into the living room and hanging up his bag. “He was raised to be very polite, especially to women, so just calling her Aunt is strange to him.”

Molly leaned forward, intrigued, “Does Fjord spend a lot of time with the Clays?”

“He’s been in there the past few times I've stopped by, usually talking with Caduceus about something. Why?”

“Just curious. Would you say they’re close?”

Caleb looked over towards Molly as he headed back to the kitchen, “Are you implying something,  Mollymauk ?”

“I’m trying to determine if there’s anything to imply. I’ve had no access to the outside world until now, and I'm not ashamed to admit I like a little gossip. So, are they close?”

“Hm,” Caleb thought over the question while he pulled out  Frumpkin’s food. “I haven’t paid much attention to that, but Caduceus’s younger sister did invite Fjord to dinner, and the two men fell into a loop of not wanting to impose on the other.”

“Now that sounds like a rom-com in the making. What character do you think you’d be in a rom-com?”

“The one that stays out of it until it’s reached the point where things are so ridiculous that even I have to say something about it.”

“Someone answered rather quickly. Is this the kind of thing you’ve spent time thinking about?”

“Nein, Jester once casted us all for fun, and that’s the role she assigned me.” He shrugged, “Seemed fitting enough.”

“I highly approve of her decisions, both in deciding to cast you all in the first place and in her choice for you. She’s a kindred spirit, it’s a shame I couldn’t have known her in life.”

“I don’t think the universe would’ve been able to handle the two of you together.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

Caleb made himself some dinner and they moved to the couch. It was early enough that  _ Wheel of Fortune _ was still on, Molly spent most of the episode trying to find inappropriate words. “They’re mostly four letters,” He said, “Much easier to spell.”  _ Jeopardy  _ ended up fairly uneventful, the champion pretty much swept the game so it was a no stakes final, and neither of them got preferred categories, but they had fun yelling at the TV anyways. 

When Molly looked over and saw Caleb starting to nod off, he shooed  Frumpkin off the couch to get Caleb’s attention and turned off the TV. “Right, to bed with you then, that couch is not nearly comfortable enough for a good night’s sleep, I get a crick just watching you try.”

“Ja  ja alright.” Caleb’s accent was thicker with sleep, it was cute. He slowly dragged himself up and headed back to his room to get ready for bed. Molly waited until he was reasonably sure Caleb had brushed his teeth and gone to bed before blowing out the candle and settling onto the couch to wait out the evening.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick disclaimer as this story continues: I am not a practicing witch, I'm going to be making a lot of the witchcraft things up as I go along

Caleb had work off the next day which meant he’d normally sleep in, but since he’d gone to bed fairly  early he was up at a reasonable time and even took the time to toast some bread and cook an egg. While he was eating, Caleb started reading one of the books from Aunt Corrin, pulling out an old notebook from one of his shelves. His half-drunk coffee was quickly forgotten in favor of flipping pages and scrawling notes. When  Frumpkin started acting like he wanted attention, Molly distracted him with a receipt that had fallen on the floor, luring him out to the living room and blowing the receipt back and forth for  Frumpkin to chase. 

At one point, Molly looked up and saw Caleb watching with a soft smile, aware of Molly was up to even if he couldn’t see him.  Frumpkin tired of playing after a little while and walked off to find a sunny patch to lay down in, so Molly moved back to the kitchen and sat across from Caleb. The intense focus and passion all over Caleb’s face was fascinating, and Molly found himself content to just sit and watch him work. It got to be around noon before Caleb’s stomach reminded him that he had basic bodily functions he was neglecting. He stretched, getting out the cramps from his hunched over posture and constant writing.

“Ah, my apologies,” Caleb picked up the matchbook and lit the candle, “I didn’t realize I'd neglected to do that.”

“No worries, you were pretty occupied so no sense in letting it burn itself out. Good read?”

“It’s very informative. This particular book is an introduction to the movements of energies.” In very coincidental moment, Caleb’s stomach growled again as he said that.

Molly snorted, “It sounds like you need to introduce a different movement of energy and fix yourself some lunch.”

“Funny,” Caleb responded, smiling in spite of himself as he got up. He picked up his coffee mug and took a sip from it on instinct, then almost immediately made a face as he tasted the very much no longer hot liquid. Molly snickered as Caleb dumped out the coffee and started brewing a new pot. 

“ So what is the movement of energies supposed to teach you about living with a ghost?” Molly asked, watching to see Caleb’s eyes light up again as he started talking about his research.

“For the moment, it’s more about understanding the natural world beyond what I thought I knew, and the nature of ghosts in general. You see, magical potential energy is everywhere, through all living things, some people are just more in tune to it than others. And, as we know from the Law of Conservation of Energy, it never goes away, it just turns into something else.”

“So my personal magical energy turned me into a ghost?”

“Something like that, ja. And it’s been harnessed here because not only is this where you died, but you already had a connection to this place, so your energy created a link to tether you to this world.”

“But not everyone turns into a ghost when they die, otherwise it would be a lot more crowded around here, so why am I still hanging around?”

“I don’t know yet, that may be something we have to figure out together.”

“Group project! I warn you, I'm the worst partner, I will drive you absolutely crazy.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Caleb teased. “Have you ever heard of ley lines?” 

“Sounds like something I've probably tried once or twice, but I'm guessing they’re not what I think they are.”

“I would ask but I really don’t think I want to know. Ley lines are these rivers of supernatural energy that run crisscross all over the world. Supposedly they connect all the major landmarks and monuments of the world, and can be tapped into for an extra boost of power.”

“Now that you’re explaining it to me, I feel like I heard about something like this once before.”

“Carnies again?”

“No, they were mostly into tarot and tea readings; I think someone I used to  _ know _ was into witchcraft.”

“A friend of yours?”

Molly hummed doubtfully, “Not sure if I would call her a friend, I think we just got along well enough to hand out with each other. She was very strange, talked about bringing things back from the dead a lot.”

“Necromancy.”

“Gross.”

“Do you remember her name?”

“.....nope, can’t pull it. Probably wouldn’t be her actual name anyway. People like that come up with dark and mysterious names like Dusk or Luna or Thorn.” Molly paused for a second and ran that over in his head again. “I think I just named the Hex Girls.”

Caleb chuckled, “I wondered if you’d catch onto that. Is there anything else you remember about her?”

“’ fraid not, the memory just  sort of popped into my head while you were talking about ley lines. Who knows, maybe the more you find out about witchcraft the more I'll remember.”

“Only time will tell.”

“I’ll let you get back to it then, I'm going to go bother Peter Frumpkin Eater.”

“If he starts swiping at you leave him alone, I don’t care if you can’t feel it  it still means he’s getting agitated.”

“Fiiiine. I'll put out the candle to save the wax.”

“How do you do that?”

“Easy as whistling, just put your lips together and-” Molly blew out the candle.

“I can’t whistle either,” Caleb said quietly to himself, confused by this new development. Molly just smiled and rustled the pages of his book before heading off to find  Frumpkin . 

They spent the rest of the day doing their own things. Caleb was buried in pages and ink while Molly either played with  Frumpkin , lounged around, or watched Caleb work. At one point he did flip the lights on since the natural light from outside was going away, but nothing brought Caleb out of his focus until  Frumpkin started insisting on being fed. Once the cat and the living human had food, Molly insisted on Caleb taking a break from the books for the night, otherwise he knew Caleb would probably have stayed up well into the night and been exhausted the next morning. When Caleb looked like he was tempted to go back to the books, Molly started turning out lights, sending the clear message that he was in fact going to continue to be obnoxious about this, so Caleb conceded defeat and said good night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter does contain spoilers for the movie Ghost.  
Yes the one from 1990.  
Look I'm just making a safe bet that anyone who hasn’t seen the movie before may find certain things in this chapter surprising, I certainly had some surprises of my own while watching the movie for the first time.

“Have you ever seen the movie _ Ghost _?” Molly asked out of apparently nowhere one day. 

Caleb barely looked up from his book, “You know, the funny thing is you’re not the first person to ask me that.” 

“Oh? Who was the other?” 

“Beau brought it up when I met her and Jester for lunch.” 

“Ooo and how are those two doing?” 

“They’re roommates, Mollymauk.” 

“Oh my god they’re roommates!” 

Caleb looked up towards him, “How do you- no, wait, let me guess, carnies?” 

“They were a very formative influence.” 

“So I'm learning.” 

“You still haven’t answered my question though: _ have _ you seen it?” 

“I haven’t, actually, have you?” 

“I'm not familiar with the movie, although the carnies did like to play the musical soundtrack. They were very big fans of musical theatre, I keep waiting for the category to come up on Jeopardy so I can sweep it. We should plan a movie night.” 

“Are you sure? You don’t think it would be weird for you?” 

“Who knows, it might end up educational. I have no idea how this whole ghost thing works, maybe Mr. Won’t-let-his-girlfriend-finish-her-pottery can teach me a thing or two.” 

“Jester mentioned she had a copy, I'll see if I can borrow it.” 

“You could always invite them over, we can leave the candle unlit and I'll keep my hands to myself, scout’s honor.” 

“This is your apartment too, Mollymauk, you don’t have to do that. I’ll invite everyone over, see who’s available. It would give you all a chance to meet each other properly too.” 

“Fantastic!” 

It turned out no one was available as Friday night was apparently “date night” for “normal people" according to Beau when Caleb talked to her on the phone. Caleb had, perhaps unwisely, lit the candle and had to do his best to ignore Molly’s smartass remarks while also hoping that Beau didn’t hear any of it. Nott was doing something with her husband and son (“Wait say that again? How is the first I'm hearing about this???” “You’ve literally never talked to her, Mollymauk.” “Still!”), Fjord and Caduceus were going out for dinner and a walk or something like that, and Beau and Jester were going to have a paint and wine party for two in their apartment. 

“We should’ve made bets on this,” Molly commented, “I had a feeling there was more going on with those pairs.” 

“And yet you managed to completely miss the fact that Nott is in fact married, with a son.” 

“_ You _ are my window to the outside world, Caleb, if _ I _ didn’t know something it’s because _ you _ absolutely failed to mention it.” 

“I apologize for not being as on top of the gossip as I could’ve been. If it makes you feel better, it was news to all of us as well. Nott is a very private person when she wants to be, but she does so by relying on people not asking too many questions.” 

“My my, how intriguing. Is Nott even her real name???” 

“It’s not.” 

“It is Nott?” 

“No, it’s not.” 

“_ Not _ Nott?” 

“Who’s there?” 

“Don’t try to distract me by being cute. I was _ joking _, who is this woman???” 

“Veth Brenatto.” 

“Good lord I'm learning so much in one day. Why didn’t you _ tell _ me your friends were so interesting?” 

“I suppose I've gotten used to them, I didn’t realize they were so fascinating.” 

“If we didn’t already have plans tonight I would insist you sit down and tell me everything –well, everything you’re sure they’d be alright with me knowing- but as it is we have a movie to watch.” 

“Jester said she’d swing by to drop off the movie on her way to get the wine, and that she wants to meet you. I would tell you to behave, but even if I thought you’d listen I don’t think she’d care.” 

“Oh this is going to be delightful.” 

Around 6:00 there was a very excited knock on the door followed by a “Hellooooo, are you in there? Are you in the bathroom? Are you pooping?” 

Caleb sighed, fondly but long-suffering, and opened the door, Molly stepping up next to him with a light tug on his sleeve, “Hello Jester.” 

“Hi Caleb! Here’s the movie, you might want to have tissues nearby. Is Molly here?” 

Molly knocked twice on the wall near her, “Am I ever not?” 

“Ohmygosh hi! I’m Jester!” 

“A pleasure to meet you, loved your work with the bookshelves.” 

“Thank you,” Jester gushed, “I’m very proud of it. Okay real quick question before I go: do you know what you look like?” 

“I think I have a general idea, like I can see myself from about the chest down, but to be quite honest it’s been forever since I saw myself in a mirror.”

“Well you have a very nice voice and I can’t wait to talk to you again soon. Bye Molly, bye Caleb!” 

“Ta-ta dear.” 

“Bye Jester.” 

“I like her,” Molly said as Caleb shut the door. 

“Ja, she is a good one. I’ll make popcorn and then we can start this movie.” 

“A man after my own heart.” 

The movie night experienced its first upset of the night fairly early into the movie, when they learned that Demi Moore’s character was named Molly. Caleb paused the movie as Molly, his Molly, started scream laughing on the other side of the couch. 

“I thought you heard the songs?” 

“I forgot! They mostly listened to the sad one that she sings! Besides I hadn’t picked my name until after they left and I didn’t even think about it. Holy shit that’s funny.” 

When Sam died, and turned away from the light to cross over, Molly’s reaction was more subdued than Caleb would’ve thought. 

“Huh. Don’t think I got that.” 

“You don’t think you had the choice to go or stay?” 

“Not that I recall. I was just sort of...here.” 

About halfway through the movie, and after Caleb had had to move the popcorn where Molly couldn’t try to fling it at Carl or Willie every time they came on screen, Molly suddenly said, “This movie would be even better with lesbians.” 

That made Caleb pause and turn to him, “Pardon?” 

“I mean Demi Moore already looks like a lesbian so just give her a butch girlfriend and you’ve already added so many more layers with so little effort. First of all, Carl is even more of a creep for hitting on her because not only is she _ in mourning _ but he also has no idea of knowing if she even likes men. Second, it’s what, late 80s early 90s? So still in the midst of the HIV/AIDs crisis, meaning homophobia is rampant, and there’s no way of knowing if someone’s going to turn on you. Third, the fact that Sam has problems saying ‘I love you’ is such a queer mood.” 

“I see your points. And it would require very little adjustment of the story. A shame you were never brought in for consulting.” 

“Isn’t it? The world has been deprived of my genius.” 

For a good while as they continued watching, the only further commentary Molly had was booing the assholes, and generally talking to the characters on screen even though he knew they couldn’t hear him. It was chill, it was comfortable, it was any movie night with your roommate. 

And then Willie died. And the music changed. And the shadows came for him. 

For a moment, Caleb was so distracted by his own horror, that he didn’t realize how quiet Molly had gotten. His attention was pulled away when the table and couch started rattling. 

“Mollymauk?” No response, and the rattling just kept spreading. “Mollymauk!” Caleb quickly hit pause and moved in front of where he was pretty sure Molly was sitting, blocking the view to the TV. “Look at me, Molly,” He said softly. “You’re not getting dragged to hell. There are no shadows here for you. You're alright, I promise.” 

The rattling slowly faded, and he could hear Molly take in a deep breath out of reflex. “That...I hated whatever that was.” 

“I think you had a spectral panic attack. They're not much fun in the physical form either.” 

“That fucking sucked.” 

“I know. Do you want to stop the movie?” 

“No let’s get through it, we’re close to the end anyways and if we don’t finish it tonight it’ll drive me crazy until we do.” 

“Alright.” 

Caleb hit play, but kept an eye towards Molly and a hand on the remote. When the window came down on Carl, he hit pause immediately, but Molly told him to go ahead and keep going. They were quiet for the rest of the movie, watching Sam finally say goodbye. 

As the credits rolled, Molly spoke up again, “That scene with the subway ghost made a lot of sense, how he was teaching Sam to move things. You really do have to think about what you’re doing, it doesn’t just happen passively. Not sure about that whole possessing people thing, and before you say anything, I have no intention of trying it. Not even on the cat.” 

“Thank you. It makes sense that you would be need to use intention to change the nature of your energy. Caduceus would probably point out that everything in nature changes with a purpose. How do you feel now?” 

“I’m fine now, Caleb, go on to bed. I'll see you tomorrow.” 

“Alright. Good night, Molly.” 

“Good night.” 

Molly settled onto the couch, a bit worn out from what had happened. If Caleb left the kitchen light on, neither of them said anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Petition for lesbian remake of Ghost


	8. Chapter 8

“Okay so explain this to me again,” Molly said as he sat across from Caleb in the living room, watching his roommate lay out items. “I know you did it once but you were very excited and talking very fast and I'm pretty sure you were forgetting words in English because you kept throwing German into the mix.” 

“I’ll try to go slower this time,” Caleb promised him. “So far, we’ve been using the candle that Caduceus made in order to communicate. The candle works for everyone, that’s its purpose, _ but _ it may be possible for me to find me own way of establishing communication with you, one that will be stronger.” 

“And these are supposed to help you figure that out?” 

“Exactly. Whatever our new means is, it will be conducted through something elemental, so I need to figure out which element is the one I connect to the most.” 

“So we’ve got a regular candle, for fire, the bowl of water, pretty self-explanatory, a seed for earth, and the feather is air?” 

“Exactly.” 

“How do you know which one is yours?” 

“That’s the long part, which is why I waited till today. I have to make a circle of salt around myself, and create wards against negative influences-” 

“There goes me intruding, I've never been a good influence in my life ever.” 

“Making the wards will take time in order to make sure they’re strong. And then I sit in the circle and let my mind drift into a meditative state. Once I've reached the point where I can let my energy reach out into the circle, one of these elements will speak back to me.” 

“Stupid question, but they’re not going to actually start speaking, are they? Like we’re not going to suddenly have to deal with a talking sprout. Because that would be pretty cool, but also very very weird and frankly I'm too prone to jealousy to let another weird supernatural being stay in the apartment.” 

“I’m fairly certain it’s metaphorical.” 

“Fairly certain is not all certain, Mister Caleb. To quote another magic man: there’s a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead.” 

“Well then if I am wrong I will make sure the other being knows that you were here first, Mister Mollymauk.” 

“Oh it’ll know. Isn't that right Peter Peter Frumpkin Eater?” He got a very bored yawn in response. “Your enthusiastic support is very encouraging.” 

Caleb just smiled and shook his head as he started pouring the salt. “Once I have the wards up, you can’t distract me for any reason, so if there’s something you want to say you should say it now.” 

“Bold of you to assume I would only have one thing. What if the apartment catches on fire?” 

“I suppose that would warrant a distraction.” 

“What if a tornado rips through the apartment?” 

“I would hope you wouldn’t need to tell me about that.” 

“What if something happens to Frumpkin?” That earned him a sharp look. “Right, right, too far. Oh Caleb there is one thing I wanted to say before you get started.” 

“Ja?” 

“You’re an absolute dork and it’s very charming.” 

Caleb blushed and quietly went back to work. Molly went ahead and blew out the candle so that if he started talking to himself, or to Frumpkin, it wouldn’t distract Caleb. Caleb himself was mostly quiet as he drew the wards onto scotch tape and placed them around his salt circle, muttering a little as he recited the meanings of each one to himself. As each one fell into place, Molly could feel a shift in the air, a crackling that moved towards Caleb and started to form a barrier around him. He could see something too, something that he knew instinctively wasn’t on the physical plane, but on whatever in-between place he himself occupied. It flickered into place as well, piece by piece, creating a protective dome around Caleb. Molly knew when the wards had been completed, because the dome flashed, then settled into place. 

“Well done, Mister Caleb,” He whispered. Even Frumpkin, perched on the back of the couch, was entranced by what was going on in the room. 

As Caleb sat in his circle, seemingly unaware of what the other two could see, his breathing evened out and his shoulders relaxed. Molly could see...something reach out from Caleb to press against the dome, apparently testing its boundaries. The way it curled and crept almost reminded Molly of fog, but this was lighter than fog, more like... 

“Smoke. My dear Mister Caleb, I do believe I know what your element is. Let’s find out if I'm right.” 

Caleb felt like he’d stepped into a dream. There was an unrealness to his body that gave him the impression if he looked down he wouldn’t have the right number of fingers on his hands. The room around him was still there, he was aware of it in his peripherals, but all of the focus was inside his circle. With every breath he let out, he gently pushed his sense of self outward, letting it find the edges of the circle and fill up the space. The four objects were in front of him, but surrounding each of them was an aura, one amber, one blue, one green, one silver, that created an illusion of doubles. 

With his mind’s eye, Caleb could see a lit candle, ripples in the water, a sprouting seed, and a drifting feather. He gave a gentle push, moving his energy towards the objects. It curled away from three of them, but the candle snapped into focus as the wick lit itself. The small flame danced in front of him, almost like it was saying hello, and Caleb couldn’t help but smile. 

“Hallo. I'm glad to know you.” 

Slowly, Caleb breathed in and pulled himself back, letting his awareness return to the physical world. As the room came back into focus and the wards went down one by one, the candle remained lit. He picked it up and blew it out before standing and stretching. A glance at the clock told him that a few hours had passed, which explained why he felt so stiff. And tired. He cleaned up the ritual area, then lit Molly’s candle. 

“Molly, you still here?” 

“Of course. I take it you found your element?” 

“Fire.” 

“It suits you.” 

“Thank you. I think. I'm going to lay down now and take a nap, but I just wanted to check in.” 

“I’m touched. And if that whole thing was even half as cool on your end as it looked from mine, I’m incredibly jealous right now.” 

Caleb just smiled and closed his eyes to sleep as Frumpkin curled up on his chest. 


	9. Chapter 9

“Molly, Beau is coming over to pick something up with a friend who doesn’t know about you, and she has asked that you keep the ‘spooky shit’ to a minimum.”

“Beau has friends besides the ones in your group?”

“ Yasha is part of the group, she’s been out of town for a few months.”

“She’s part of the group yet none of you have told her about me? I’m wounded.”

“We talked about it but decided it was better to wait till she was back in town and could introduce you, that way she didn’t think we were trying to pull a group prank on her.”

“Caleb, and I say this with all due respect and much love, I don’t think your group is coordinated enough to pull off a collective prank over a long period of time. You're more in the moment type people which, frankly, works out for you lot much better than it should. Anyways, coming back to Beau and this  Yasha person, why not just tell her while she’s here since it’s going to happen at some point?”

“I asked her that myself, and her response was, ‘because we’re going to meet with Jester for a date and I don’t want the whole thing to turn into a discussion about Molly the Obnoxious Ghost.’”

“A date! How terrifically polyamorous of them, I can’t wait to see this woman. And, for Jester’s sake, I'll stay incognito.”

“How very considerate of you, I'm sure Beau will be touched by your compassion.”

“I don’t think Beau wants to be touched by anything having to do with me.”

Caleb very wisely decided to ignore that. He left a candle burning so that Molly wasn’t totally silenced, but left the Clay candle unlit on the kitchen table. The others had been generally informed that Caleb had a way to speak with Molly now, but only Caduceus knew more of the details as Caleb was still trying to find his footing and didn’t feel like fielding a million questions yet. Personally, Molly was just waiting for the day when it was casually, accidentally dropped into conversation that Caleb was a practicing witch and he’d just forgotten to actually bring it up once he’d gotten used to it. He was a very smart man, Molly couldn’t deny that, but he wasn’t always great at the whole people thing.

When three hard knocks on the door sounded, Molly sidled up alongside Caleb so he could get a look at the mysterious  Yasha , giving a tug on the sleeve to indicate he was there.

“Hello Beau .”

“Hey man. How's it going?” Beau was a bit stiff as she tried to stay casual, eyes looking around the room for any sign of fuckery.

“Things are going well. Hello Yasha, welcome back; how was your trip?”

“Hi Caleb. It was good, I have a lot of pictures to show you guys.”

“We should get together this week to see them. Beau, I have the book you were asking about in the kitchen. I also found one that I think Jester would like. Come on in while I get them for you.”

“Cool, cool.” They stepped in to wait.  Yasha took the time to look around the apartment for the first time, Beau kept looking for any sign of where Molly was.

Molly was in fact walking alongside Caleb. “ Yasha is very intimidating and I'm living for it. Well, after-living. I knew Beau was a disaster lesbian but I didn’t realize how far across the spectrum that went. You have to have everyone over soon, I need to see the contrast of Jester and  Yasha , I'm sure my poor queer heart won’t be able to handle it.”

“I think a friend of mine used to live in this area,”  Yasha commented, unaware of Molly’s running commentary that Caleb was very  dilligently not responding to. “He used to talk about the haunted apartment he stayed in during one of the off seasons.” That brought Molly and Caleb up short, and Beau’s head snapped over to look at Yasha.

“Gustav Fletching,” Molly said, “He helped run the carnival.”

Caleb glanced over towards Molly, “Yasha, was his name by chance Gustav Fletching?”

“How... how did you know that?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Beau said.

“One moment.” Caleb picked up the Clay candle and blew on the wick to light it. “There’s someone I think you should meet. I apologize for not telling you sooner, but he’s a little hard to explain.”

Molly waved, forgetting for a moment that she couldn’t see him, “Hello  Yasha , I'm  Mollymauk Tealeaf, but you can call me Molly. You can also call me obnoxious, Beau’s very fond of that one.”

“Hi Molly,”  Yasha started to wave before realizing she couldn’t see him. “Are you a ghost?”

“Afraid so. You’re friends with Gustav then?”

“Yeah I worked for the carnival one summer about two years ago.”

“How are they doing, I've missed them terribly.”

“It’s been a bit rough but they’re still going. Did you ever talk to him, he never mentioned you by name?”

“The name came after, I picked it myself, and the talking to people thing is an even more recent development.”

“Wasn’t  Mollymauk the name of that song Gustav liked to play?”

“It was! I grew rather fond of it myself.”

“Can we back up for a second,” Beau interrupted. “Did Caleb just pull a  _ Practical Magic _ with that candle?”

“I don’t understand that reference,” Caleb told her.

“Sounds familiar,” Molly said, “But I don’t know it myself.”

“You know that movie with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman and they’re witch sisters and they do that thing where they blow on the candle and it lights? You did the thing!”

“Ja, I suppose I did.”

“Dude, are you a witch and you didn’t tell me!?”

“Not quite, I'm still just learning, I was going to tell you later.”

“Are there any other big reveals that are going to happen in the next ten minutes or can we go ahead and go?”

“ Frumpkin is actually an emissary from the underworld and is one day going to steal all of your souls,” Molly told her.

Beau flipped the bird in his direction, “Good luck fucking finding mine. Also, I'm telling Jester everything so  get ready for her to send you at least 50 messages about this.”

Caleb shrugged, “Okay. Here are your books, have fun on your date, sorry about the chaos.”

“I’m getting used to it,” she groaned, opening the door. “Yasha, you good to go?”

“I’m good. Nice meeting you, Molly.”

“And you as well. Ta-ta, use protection. Make sure you have a  safeword !”

Beau shut the door a little loudly on the way out and Molly snickered.

“That was fun,” Caleb commented dryly.

“I certainly thought so. We're definitely watching that movie she talked about, right?”

“Already looking for it.”

“Bless you.”


	10. Chapter 10

It was another Friday night, and Caleb and Molly were up to their usual nothing. Well, Caleb was reading and Molly was playing with Frumpkin, but they had no major plans for the night. Fjord had jokingly referred to them as a couple of old bachelors (“Or is it confirmed bachelors? I've heard both terms but I'm not sure what the difference is.” “Molly has informed me that confirmed bachelor is old slang for homosexual.” “Ah. Not what I meant then.”), which for some reason had been especially funny to Jester. The entire rest of the group was going on a triple date to a botanical garden, which Caleb had opted out of since he would probably spend the whole thing sitting somewhere with a book trying not to be a seventh wheel (eighth counting Luc as part of Veth’s group), and he would prefer to do that somewhere with less pollen. And people. 

“You’re not going to turn into some kind of hermit, are you?” Beau had asked during the group call. (“Why do you all call so much? Wouldn't texting be a lot easier and, y’know, current?” “Jester uses too many gifs-” “It’s gif.” “and emojis; Caduceus is a very slow texter and we kept breezing through topics before he could reply; Fjord has too many thumbs.”) 

“You say that like I used to be some kind of social butterfly. Besides, I have my roommate, I have my cat, and I have my books, what more does a man need?” 

“A lot. Like, so much.” 

“Have you tried that tea I gave you the other day?” Caduceus asked. 

“I have, it’s very good.” 

“In that case I'd say you’re all set.” 

“Cad,” Fjord had jumped in, “I love you, but there is no such thing as a sustainable all-tea diet.” 

“Well not yet there’s not,” Caduceus mused, “But we’re working on it.” 

“Are you going to be making teas like that gum from _ Willy Wonka?” _ Jester had asked, “Because that would be so cool and I totally volunteer to try all of your dessert flavors.” 

“You know we have been trying a few sweeter flavors, I'll bring samples to the garden for you.” 

Beau groaned, “Do you hate secretly hate us, is that why you’re trying to give our girlfriend a sugar high?” 

“You know, it’s actually been proven that there’s no such thing as a sugar high-” 

“Caleb please shut up.” 

“I’m just saying.” 

“Caduceus,” Yasha interjected, “I found that hat I was telling you about, the one with the ribbon? I'll bring it to the garden.” 

“Thank you Yasha, I think Clarabelle is really going to like it.” 

Jester exclaimed, “Oh, that reminds me! Nott, I finished those dolls you wanted repainted and they are super cute and I can’t wait to show you.” 

“Thank you, Jester! I’m going to surprise Yeza with them so we’ll just tell him that I commissioned you without going into details.” 

That’s when Molly had jumped in, “Jester, do you by any chance do voodoo dolls?” 

“I’ve never don’t it before but I could probably make one out of those squishy things you see online!” 

“No voodoo dolls in the apartment,” Caleb said, “We’d probably end up with very negative energy because we don’t know what we’re doing.” 

Jester and Molly had both answered, “Fiiine.” 

So now Caleb and Molly were hanging out by themselves together in the apartment. Molly and Frumpkin had discovered a new game where Molly would start moving something in the apartment and Frumpkin had to stalk around to find it and pounce. It was a great way for the cat to get exercise and for the ghost to exercise his abilities. The area around Caleb was off limits so as not to distract him from his laser focus on the books in front of him. 

It was during a break in the game, when Molly was sitting across the table watching him work, that Caleb paused and said, “Molly? May I ask you a personal question?” 

“It’s not pierced.”

“What? No,  nevermind , don’t tell me. This one is a bit more serious.”

“Good thing I’m sitting down. What’s up?” 

“Have you ever been in love?” 

Molly whistled, “That is a serious question. I'm going to need to think about that one for a second.” After a minute or so Molly said, “No, I don’t believe I have. None of the memories I have of the people I knew in my before-death are especially strong, and I feel like that’s the kind of thing that would stand out.” 

“Before-death. As in...” 

“The opposite of afterlife? Yep. What about you, have you ever been in love?” 

“Uh ja, once. Another time I thought I was in love but I wasn’t really.” 

“What happened?” 

“Well the first one we just grew apart, she had her plans and I had mine, and we realized we weren’t going to be happy together anymore. The second time... I thought I was in love, but the reality was I saw someone just a little more broken than I was, and decided I could help fix him instead of taking care of myself. Then when I realized there was nothing more I could do for him, he had to do the rest himself, my friends helped me pull myself back before I put everything I had into his problems. He and I grew apart as well, but we still stay in touch every now and then. I haven’t spoken to her in years.” 

“I’m sorry. I imagine that can’t be easy.” 

“It’s what needed to happen.” 

“Doesn’t mean it can’t hurt.” 

“Ja, I suppose you’re right. In any case, it’s been a while since all that, I haven’t really been ‘out on the town’ much but I don’t feel like having a casual fling and there’s a lot of baggage I'm still working through.” 

“That’s very mature of you, it’s remarkable you’re not some boring adult who never makes questionable decisions.” 

“Such as?” 

“Knowingly living in a haunted apartment, befriending your ghostly roommate –this could’ve gone much worse for you, don’t lie- dabbling in witchcraft like a heathen, and that’s just what you’ve done since you moved in. Just based on the tidbits you and your friends drop into conversation it sounds like the seven of you have had quite the adventures.” 

“And because my friends make questionable decisions that must mean I do too?” 

“No, but the fact that you’re still friends with them _ and _ that you were never exactly the dissenting voice on those escapades does.” Molly leaned forward, “Face it, Caleb, you’re as chaotic as the rest of them, and you love it.” 

Caleb looked towards Molly and smiled, “Probably for the best that I ended up here then, who knows what you would have done if someone reasonable moved in.” 

“They would’ve never made it. I wasn’t sure you were going to at first either. I've never been happier to be wrong.” 

“I’m glad you were too.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Please.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Bitte.”

“Nein.”

“Just tell me what you’re trying, what’s the harm?”

“I just want to be sure it works, I'll tell you if it does.”

“You’re just lucky I like surprises. As long as they’re fun. Is this a fun surprise?”

“I certainly hope it will be.”

Molly sighed and perched on the back of the couch to watch Caleb mix things together in a jar. If there was a rhyme or reason to the plants and whatnot, it was lost on Molly. The feather was particularly interesting. Caleb consulted his book, which was written in a messy scrawl  that, even if Molly didn’t have enough trouble reading as is, would’ve given him a hard time. But Caleb understood it perfectly fine as he muttered the words to himself, a mix of German and English, and ran his fingers over the words. Finally, apparently satisfied with what he’d done, he picked up a match and lit it before dropping it into the jar. There was a flash as the dried materials caught, and the flame spread quickly.

Caleb watched the fire in the jar, seemingly unbothered by how it  it was probably getting, until it had burned out and there was just smoke. He put the lid on the jar, trapping the smoke inside, then looked up and glanced around the room, “Molly?”

“Behind you, darling.” Molly jumped off the couch and walked around Caleb, leaning over to inspect the jar. “Well it certainly looked impressive, did it work?” He glanced up and saw Caleb looking right at him. “Caleb?”

“Schön.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s good to finally see you, Molly.”

“You...” Molly straightened up, watching as Caleb’s eyes tracked his movement for the first time since he’d moved in. “You bloody brilliant bastard.” He sat down across from Caleb and leaned forward eagerly. “ How do I look, be honest.”

“Your hair is purple, I wasn’t expecting that. It suits you. Your clothes are very colorful as well, I'm especially impressed by the mismatched trouser legs. You look like someone who enjoyed life.”

“Well... thank you. That's a lot more sincere than I was expecting. How's my arse? I haven’t had a good look at it in years.” Molly stood and turned around to show it off.

Caleb laughed, “You have a perfectly nice bottom, Molly.”

“And my face?” He leaned back down again and got in Caleb’s personal space, but Caleb didn’t pull away.

“You have a very nice face as well.”

“How very sincere of you.” Molly laced his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands, “So is this new spell of yours permanent or temporary?”

“Well,” Caleb held up the jar to the light and shook it a little, “My hope is that it’s permanent, or at least long term. But it’s easy enough to replicate, so if it turns out to not work as well as I'd hoped then there shouldn’t be an issue maintaining it until I find a better solution.”

“We’ll cross that bridge if we get there, for now let’s enjoy the victory in the moment. Was this written down somewhere or did you figure it out yourself?”

Sure enough, there was that spark. “There are many different types of True Sight spells, including ones that allow you to see into the spirit realm. What I wanted to do was not only make it last longer, but also tie it specifically to you. For the first part of it, that’s what the jar is for, I trap the spell inside so that it can’t  dissipate . I also put some string in there as a symbolic way of binding it together. If this doesn’t work, my next thought is to tie some string around the lid of the jar itself, and seal it with wax. For the second part, I'm still not sure if it’s completely worked the way I wanted it to, but I'll probably find out once I head out into the world and find another place where there are ghosts.”

“Now Mister Caleb, if you’re not careful you might make me jealous.”

“You’re all the ghost I need, Mister Mollymauk. In order to make the spell specific to you, I added the feather of a Mollymawk bird, the one the song is named after, as well as-”

“Tea leaves.”

“Exactly. It took me a while to decide which one I wanted to use. I ended up choosing Earl Grey because it’s one of the more caffeinated teas. It’s also apparently something of a meme.”

Molly snorted, “The tea that you felt best represents me is a caffeinated meme; I would be more offended if that weren’t one of the most accurate things I've ever heard. If I have a gravestone somewhere out there, I want that written on it: ‘Here lies  Mollymauk Tealeaf, a caffeinated meme of a human being.’ Speaking of, where did you find the mollymawk feather?”

“That was surprisingly easy. It turns out, the mollymawk is an albatross, a type of seabird, and Fjord spent a number of years as a crew member aboard one of those tall sailing ships. He was able to reach out to some of his old crew mates and find someone who knew someone who collects bird feathers, and they were able to send me some.”

“It’s a good thing I didn’t pick the name Phoenix then. Although I would be curious to see how you would’ve figured that one out.”

“I’m sure there would’ve been a way.” Caleb looked over, and saw the way Molly was giving him his complete undivided attention, and immediately lost his train of thought. “You’re younger than I was expecting you to be.”

Molly sat back, caught off guard by the sudden change of topic. “I suppose so. I think I was about... 23 when I died.”

“Scheiße.”

“Yeah. I don’t have a great grasp of time from that period but that feels about right.”

Caleb reached out, going to put his hand on Molly’s but it just passed through. “I’ll work on that one,” He promised quietly. “Molly?”

“Yeah?”

“It is good to see you.” 


	12. Chapter 12

It was late. At least, it was later than it should be for Caleb to not be home. He hadn’t mentioned any plans, as far as Molly knew there was nothing going on with the group but maybe something had come up? He tried to focus on the positive things it could be: a spontaneous dinner with friends, getting caught up in the books, an unexpected date (that would be positive, right?); it didn’t work for very long. If Molly were corporeal, he would’ve worn a track around the apartment from all the pacing he kept doing.  Frumpkin lay on the back of the couch, watching Molly with judgement, acting like he wasn’t also looking towards the door every time there was a noise in the hall.

“Of all the times not to have a cellphone,” Molly said at one point, flopping down onto the couch for a change of scenery. “Not that I could do much with it, but it would give us a way to at least somewhat be in touch. Maybe I should talk Caleb into getting me a pager, I've absolutely no idea how they work but I know there are ones that get texts. We just leave it on the kitchen table, and he can page if there’s an emergency.” He glanced up at the cat, “Am I turning into a clingy roommate?”

“Mrrow.”

“I was afraid of that. He does have to come home eventually, regardless of anything having to do with me, you’re here and you need to be fed eventually. I could try to knock over the food in the cabinet but I don’t want to make a mess if I don’t have to. I promise I won’t let you starve,  Frumpkin , you have my word on that, however much that means to you. I'd like to think I'm a ghost of my word, I've done very well respecting the boundaries of the apartment. And even if I am getting clingy, I feel like I'm a good person, right? I mean I haven’t always been but I'm trying, and that’s got to count for something.” Outside, it started to rain. Molly sighed and lay down, “He doesn’t even have an umbrella.”

“If it has to be anything,” he said quietly into the universe, “let it be a date. Let him have started talking to some attractive person and gotten so caught up in conversation that he didn’t even realize it was that time. But they decided hey, let’s grab a meal together or something, why the fuck not? After all, you and I are the only ones waiting up for him, so as long as he gets home in time to feed you there’s really no rush.” He glanced at the clock, “He might miss Jeopardy though. Shame, new champion, looked promising.”

The sun kept setting, and still Caleb wasn’t home. Molly was seriously starting to consider trying to leave the apartment, if he only had an idea of where to go.  Frumpkin hadn’t moved from the couch either, just stared more intently at the door. Finally, a good while after Caleb should have been home to start,  Frumpkin must’ve sensed something because he leapt, down, disturbing Molly as he landed through the ghost’s chest, and padded over to the door.

The knob turned, the door opened, and backlit against the light in the hall was a very dripping Caleb.  Frumpkin meowed and rubbed up against Caleb’s legs, heedless of how wet he was getting. Molly got up as well and started to say something but stopped when he saw the look on Caleb’s face. It was a look he hadn’t seen since very early on, before Caleb had even realized Molly was there. Physically Caleb was present, but the look in his eyes made him feel very, very far away.

He stepped into the apartment, not saying anything to  Frumpkin or Molly, and headed down the hall to the bathroom. Molly gently pushed the front door shut and followed after. Caleb had pushed the bathroom door partially closed but there was still an opening. 

Molly stood outside the bathroom and put his hand against the door, not pushing it open yet. “Caleb? Are you  alright. ” He heard what sounded like Caleb’s coat dropping to the floor, and a slight creak as Caleb sat down on the closed toilet lid. He pushed the door open. “Caleb?”

Caleb was sitting hunched over, still in his dripping clothes minus the coat, staring blankly at the floor. His sleeves were pushed back and he was scratching at the scars on one of his arms.  Frumpkin walked in and sat down at Caleb’s feet, meowing up at him. Still no response.

_ Forgive me _ , Molly prayed as he knelt in front of Caleb. “Sorry about this.” He took a deep breath, and slapped Caleb across the face.

Caleb immediately sat up, hand leaving his arm to cover his cheek. “Did you just slap me?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want you to accidentally hurt yourself.” Caleb glanced at his arms and pulled his sleeves back down. Molly stood up, quietly reaching over to turn on the shower, “I’ll just leave you to it then.”

One hot shower and a fresh pair of clothes later, Caleb stepped out into the kitchen and started fixing dinner for  Frumpkin who was now weaving between his legs and purring. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even look at Molly sitting on the couch, until he put the bowl down and leaned against the kitchen counter. Molly stood up and turned to face him, but didn’t move closer.

“I am sorry,” He said, “I know that probably wasn’t the way to do that. Are you alright?”

Caleb shrugged, “It was more startling than anything. Beau once accidentally elbowed me in the face, so could’ve been worse I suppose.”

“At another point, when you’re ready to talk about... that, I’d like to know what I  _ should _ do in that situation.” 

“Okay, ja, we can definitely do that.” Caleb didn’t seem angry, but there was still an awkward tension in the air as neither of them knew what to do next.”

“Caleb?”

“Hm, ja?”

“Are you okay?”

“I uh...” Caleb sat down at the table and starting picking at some wax that had dripped onto it, “I got an email today that someone I used to know... someone I testified against... received life in prison.”

“Holy shit.” Molly walked over and sat across from him. “That’s good, right?”

“That’s very good. It means he won’t be able to hurt anymore people. But getting the news out of nowhere started me back down the memories of what happened, and I got very lost in the past. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I made it back in one piece.”

“Maybe someone was looking out for you.”

Caleb smiled a little and looked up at Molly, “Maybe.”


	13. Chapter 13

Thankfully, Caleb had the next day off, so he was able to sleep in and take a break from everything. Which of course meant that there would be a knock on the door before he could take his first sip of coffee.

“Who on earth would be out and about this early in the day?” Molly asked as Caleb sighed and went to answer the door.

“Someone more productive than us?” Caleb guessed, looking through the peephole. “Ah. It's friends.”

Standing outside the door was Veth,  Yeza , and Luc who was sitting on  Yeza’s shoulders so he could wave at the peephole. “Uncle Caleb!”

“Hallo Luc,” Caleb caught Luc as the child leaned forward to hug him, almost falling off his father’s shoulders. “Why do you keep growing? I swear you were five inches shorter last time I saw you. Hello Veth, hello Yeza, please come in.”

“We made you a surprise!” Luc told him, pointing at the container in Veth’s arms. “Show him Mama!”

“Hi Caleb,” Veth glanced around, nodding in Molly’s direction when he rustled some papers. Yeza waved awkwardly towards him; he’d been told, of course, that his wife’s friend had a ghost roommate, but this was his first time actually at the apartment.

“Why don’t you set the surprise down on the coffee table, that way we can look at it.” Caleb set Luc down on the couch and cleared room for the container.

Luc was bouncing up and down as Veth put the container down. “Open it!”

“Be patient, Luc,”  Yeza told him gently.

Caleb took off the lid to reveal-

“Cupcakes!” Luc leaned forward to point at the different colors. “Mama read the news last night and said you might not know how you feel, so we made yellow ones if you’re happy, blue ones if you’re sad, and green ones if you can’t decide.”

Caleb knelt down and gathered the family into a hug. “Thank you. This is a very good  surprise; it’s made me very happy.” He picked up one of the yellow cupcakes and split it in half. “Would you like to share?”

Luc looked at his parents, “Can I?”

They looked at each other and shrugged. “You ate all of your breakfast,” Veth said, “And you were very helpful making them, so you can share.”

“Yay!” Luc took the cupcake and turned to Molly, “Do you want some too?”

All of the adults in the room started trading looks. “Luc,” Yeza said, “Who are you talking to?”

“The purple man, right over there.”

“One second, Luc.” Caleb quickly picked up the Clay candle and lit it. “That is my friend Molly.”

“Hi Molly, I'm Luc!”

“Hi Luc,” Molly waved, “Nice to meet you.”

“Do you want to share my cupcake?”

“You know what, I would love to, but I had a  _ very _ big breakfast and if I have another  bite I think I might explode. I will definitely try one later, though.”

“Okay.” Luc settled in to happily eat his cupcake.

Veth and  Yeza shared another look and apparently came to some decision because  Yeza sat down next to Luc and started talking to him while Veth motioned Caleb and Molly over to the kitchen.

“For the record,” Molly whispered, “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Caleb,” Veth said, “Do you think Luc might have some kind of witchy ability?”

“It’s possible,” Caleb told her. “You could take him to visit Aunt Corrin and she might be able to tell you. But children also see more than some adults do. They don’t know how the world is 'supposed’ to be, so they only see it for what it is. As we get older, most of us ignore the things that don’t make sense, the things that we’re told aren’t real. Part of my learning has been to unlearn what I think I know.”

“So you don’t think he’s going to start making things float around the room and then get a mysterious letter from an owl when he turns eleven?”

“He might,” Caleb teased, “You never know.”

“That’s a Harry Potter reference, right?” Molly asked. “I never got into it but I heard a lot about it.”

“It is,” Caleb said.

“Oh god I'd have to move to England,” Veth realized, making a face. “It’s so wet there. And they spell things wrong. What if he came home and started calling me Mum?”

“Didn’t they introduce an American school?”

“I don’t know I stopped reading after book five, too many people I liked were dying.”

“Ja it didn’t get much happier after that.”

“Dumbledore dies,”  Molly said, “I know that much.”

“Good! That man was completely unfit to look after children, I'm surprised he wasn’t fired sooner, they should’ve had Professor McGonagall in charge, now  _ she _ knew how to be a boss.”

Molly turned to Caleb, “I’m very lost,” he confessed.

“I’ll explain later. The movies are too long.”

They headed back over to Luc and  Yeza . Caleb brought a chair over for Molly so he could join them for the conversation and not worry about being sat through. 

“Do you know any stories, Molly?” Luc asked.

“ Oh I can probably think of a few. Do you like stories?”

“Uh-huh! Papa tells me stories about Mama as a pirate!”

“Really? That sounds like a very good story. Tell you what, how about I tell you a story, and then you can tell me one about pirates.”

“What’s your story about?”

Molly glanced up at Caleb, “A wizard. A very good, very lonely wizard, who was trying to break a curse cast by... a very bad wizard.”

“Why was he lonely?”

“Because he couldn’t find any of his friends, they’d all disappeared.”

“Did the bad wizard make them disappear?”

“That’s what he was trying to find out.”

And they sat and listened as Molly wove a tale of the good, lonely wizard who met a lonely fairy man. The fairy man helped the good wizard find the right path back to his friends, who it turned out had also been looking for him. Together, they made the very bad wizard go far  far away, back to where the sad things come from.

“And the fairy man got to stay with the wizard and his friends?”

“He did.”

“And they all lived happily ever after?”

Molly looked back at Caleb, “Yes, I believe they did.”

“Luc,” Veth said, “We need to go now, we promised your Aunt Jester we’d help her with her painting.”

“But I need to tell Molly a story.”

“You can call him later,”  Yeza promised. “And then you can tell him a story.”

“Okaaay. Bye Uncle Caleb, bye Molly, bye Frumpkin.”

“Mrrow.”

“Good bye Luc, thank you again for the cupcakes.”

“See  ya later kiddo.”

“That was a very good story,” Caleb said as he put the cupcakes away for later.

“What can I say, I was inspired.”

“And what happens if the very bad wizard comes back?”

“They stop him again. And again. And again. As many times as they need to. The good wizard never has to be lonely again, as long as he remembers where his friends are.”

Caleb turned to look at Molly, but couldn’t find the words to say.


	14. Chapter 14

“We need to talk,” Beau said as soon as Caleb answered the phone on his way to work. “What are you doing for lunch.” 

“Hello Beauregard, it’s nice to talk to you too. I brought lunch with me, we can talk in the back room. What’s this about?” 

“I found something. See you at lunch.” 

Beau showed up uncharacteristically on time, waiting (more characteristically) impatiently outside the back door when Caleb opened it. “Hi, how are you, good? Awesome, yeah me too, good to see you, how’s the cat.” She brushed past him, not even letting him get a word in. “Are we done with the small talk?” 

“I’m afraid if I say no you’ll hit me. What's this thing that you’ve found?” 

Beau sat down at the small break room table and set her bag on top of it. “You remember that chick I hooked up with last year?” 

“Which one?” 

“Butch, smoked, liked the way I threw darts?” 

“Ah, that narrowed it down. Keg, wasn’t it, like alcohol-” 

“Or powder. Yeah, that one.” 

“Wasn’t she leaving town the next morning?” 

“Yeah she was, but she was back in town for a few days and decided to hit me up to see if we could, y’know, reconnect for a night or two.” 

“What did your girlfriends think about that?” 

“They’re actually pretty okay with me having casual sex outside of the triad, I just gotta let them know if I start catching feelings or something and then we have to have a whole other conversation. Lotta communication going on, it’s super mature of us, I'm really digging it. Anyways, I meet up with Keg and she asks me where I get my hair cut since hers is starting to get long and it turns out, the barber I go to is the same one she first started going to, they just moved shops and she lost track of them.” 

“That’s a very fortunate coincidence.” 

“Exactly, so that got us started talking about weird coincidences, and I mentioned that you live in the same apartment Yasha’s friend used to live in. _ Then _ I happened to mention what are it was in, and all of a sudden she got weirdly quiet. So I asked her, ‘hey, you okay?’ And she started telling me this story from about ten years ago, and the more she talked the more it was like she’d just been waiting to finally let it out, I couldn’t’ve stopped her if I wanted to.” 

“That is very interesting, but I don’t see why it was so important you needed to see me?” 

“I’m getting to that. So ten years ago, she’d gotten involved with this gang, like a legit, doing super illegal shit type gang, and things went too far and she wanted out. But, as you can probably guess, you don’t just ‘get out’ of a gang. She ran from their hangout in the middle of the night, managed to find a payphone and call the police, but had to keep moving. She ended up in a building that had been going through renovation, then that got stalled, so a lot of homeless people and lower threat gangs used it to sleep in. 

“They kept following her, and had her cornered in this one section, when out of nowhere this guy takes a _ crowbar _ to one of the gang members, knocks her right the fuck out. And everyone turns to look at him and he’s dual-wielding a crowbar and a rusty pipe, and he tells them to get the fuck out. Lorenzo, the lead guy, starts cursing this guy out, telling him to mind his own business and get out of the way. Rando is not having it, and starts going in against the _ four _ people still standing, and he’s holding his own. Keg’s managed to find a hiding place but frozen, she can’t even think about moving, and then Lorenzo pulls a gun and shoots the guy, straight through the chest, and he goes down. 

“Right at that moment, she hears the sirens outside, and Lorenzo and his gang haul ass. They grab the chick the guy took down and just book it. Keg comes out of hiding once they’re gone, and waits for the police to start sweeping the place. Lorenzo and his group are caught, and hauled off. Last she heard, they were all serving multiple life sentences for a whole lot of bad shit.” Beau reached into her bag and pulled out a file with several papers. “I wrote down everything Keg told me, and went digging in the newspaper archives. The building she ran into? That's where you’re living. The police released a sketch of the guy who saved Keg, trying to identify him, but no one came forward. Apparently fingerprints were unusable.” There, in black and white drawing, was Molly’s face. 

Caleb stared down at the drawing for a long while. “You know it’s funny,” he finally said, “Back when I first met Molly, I mentioned trying to look up his record or something, but it never came back up again.” 

“Now you can tell him.” 

“Tell him what? That he died a hero but no one knew who he was and he’s probably buried in an unmarked grave? I don’t know if this will help him or just cause him more hurt.” 

Beau gave Caleb a long look, “I don’t think you get to make that call.” 

“I didn’t ask you for this, Beauregard, no one asked you for this.” 

“Then ask _ him _. Ask Molly what he wants. He deserves to know he has the option.” 

“...okay. You’re right.” 

“Had to happen sometime.” 

* * *

“Hey Molly?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Do you remember one of the first times we talked, I said a friend of mine could try to find your criminal record?” 

“Yep.” 

“Well Beau happened to run into an old friend of hers, and that friend was able to tell her about what happened to you.” Caleb pulled out the file and set it down on the coffee table. “This is all the information Beau was able to find, as well as her friend’s story.” 

“Wow.” Molly sat down on the couch and stared at the file. “What happened?” 

“You died protecting a young woman, who was running from a very bad situation.” 

“Keg. They called her Keg. And his name was Lorenzo. Bastard shot me.” Molly rubbed his chest absentmindedly. “She stayed with me after they ran off, I think the police were coming. She kept saying the was sorry. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t her fault, but I never got the chance. She's the friend Beau ran into, isn’t she?” 

“Ja.” 

“Small fucking world. Tell her for me, will you?” 

“I will.” 

Molly nodded at the file, “Is there a name in there?” 

“No, they were never able to identify you.” 

“..... it’s weird, I didn’t think I'd be relieved to hear that. I like who I am now, the person they were trying to name doesn’t exist anymore, and I don’t have to worry about who I was. I like Mollymauk.” 

“You’re very lucky, in a way,” Caleb told him, “Not everyone gets a second chance to figure out who they are. And, for the record, I like Mollymauk too.” 


	15. Chapter 15

Caleb had another surprise, and once again he wasn’t telling what he was up to. It should’ve been annoying, but Molly was just excited. Whatever it was, Caleb had been working on it every free minute for the better part of the week. He’d been so distracted he’d even missed one of the questions in the Authors category on  _ Jeopardy _ . Not that Molly had known what it was either but still, it was the principle of the matter. Part of the reason Molly couldn’t help but be excited was that Caleb was excited too, which meant whatever this surprise was it was a very good thing. At least, Caleb was hoping it would be.

Molly had tried to weasel any hints of any kind out of him but Caleb was resilient. The only thing Caleb would say about it when Molly kept pressing was “ berühren ,” which was remarkably unhelpful given that Molly knew about five words in German and that wasn’t any of them.  So he’d resigned himself to waiting and now found it harder to continue being patient as Caleb pushed the furniture out of the way and rolled up the rug so he could start chalking in his circle.

“This one is going to be a bit different,” Caleb told him. “I need you to go stand in the middle, and don’t move until I tell you, okay?”

“If you’ve hired a sniper to take me out, I have unfortunate news for you. This isn’t going to hurt, is it?”

“It shouldn’t, but if it starts to, tell me and I'll stop.”

“Roger that.” Molly stepped into the center of the circle that Caleb had started and watched quietly as more lines crossed around him.

This one was much bigger than the circles Caleb usually made for rituals, even bigger than the one from when he found his element. Molly did his best to follow along with what Caleb was doing, turning his head this way and that, all the while keeping his feet firmly planted in his spot. The design was more geometric than flowing, something that was fairly typical of Caleb’s style, with polygonal shapes forming around the smaller circle that had been marked out for Molly. A second, inner circle had been drawn closer to the edge of the main circle, creating a ring that Caleb divided into sections and drew symbols in.

When Caleb lit his candle, one that he’d worked with the Clays to create for specially himself in order to provide a boost to his spells, Molly felt the lines of the circle start to hum. Five more candles were lit and placed at points around the circle. Molly could see lines of energy shoot from one candle to another, forming a pentagram amidst the other shapes. Caleb was also reciting as he worked, all German instead of his usual mix of language. The humming grew with each step, until Molly could feel the power reverberating through his entire being.

Streaks of energy kept flashing across the circle, from symbol to symbol and candle to candle, each one coming to rest in the circle Molly stood in. The circle grew brighter and brighter with each addition, and Molly could feel an energy and a warmth building within him. It didn’t hurt, but it was the most he’d felt in a long time. If he’d been able to breath, it would’ve taken his breath away. As the spell grew to its peak and the light flashed, Molly fell to his knees, overwhelmed. The magic dissipated, leaving only the chalk lines and snuffed candles.

“Molly?” Caleb stepped into the circle and put his hand on Molly’s shoulder, and it stayed.  Frumpkin jumped into the circle and pressed up against Molly, purring loudly.

“I-” He drew a breath and choked out a laugh as he  _ felt _ the air come into his lungs. “Holy shit. What the hell did you just do?”

“Are you alright?”

Molly reached up and grabbed onto Caleb’s arm, squeezing a little as he felt fabric under his fingers, “I feel... I  _ feel _ .” He looked at his arm, then pulled back and held his hands up in front of him, turning them over and over. “I’m not translucent! What did you  _ do _ ?”

“I- I don’t know,” Caleb admitted, staring at Molly with wide eyes, “I was just trying to make you a little more solid, I wasn’t expecting  _ this _ .” He reached out and his hand landed on Molly’s chest. “Molly, I think I feel your heart beating.”

“Did you just  _ accidentally _ bring me back to life?” Caleb looked up at him, at a loss for words, and just kind of shrugged with his hand still over Molly’s heart. Molly started laughing, somewhere between hysterical and delighted, and put his  hands on Caleb’s face to pull him forward and kiss his forehead. “You mad, magnificent man.”

He pushed himself to his feet, wobbling a little as he tried to remember how to balance on solid legs. Caleb got up as well, holding his arms out to provide some stability,  trying not to step on  Frumpkin who was weaving between their legs. The shirt Molly had died in was low cut, and just below the neckline there was part of a scar visible. Caleb reached out and gently pulled the shirt a little lower, tracing his fingertips over the now-healed bullet wound. There were other scars too, older ones, that  crisscrossed across Molly’s chest. He hadn’t been able to see them before because of how light Molly’s skin had been.

“Not sure what those are from,” Molly said quietly, looking down at where Caleb’s  fingers were still moving across his skin. “Probably something incredibly stupid. They both looked up, meeting each other’s eyes, and Molly threw his arms around Caleb’s neck, holding on to him tightly. “Even if this doesn’t last,” he whispered, “Thank you.”

Caleb wrapped his arms around Molly, holding back just as tight. “We’ll talk to Caduceus in the morning. For now, let’s just have tonight.”

They didn’t want to disturb the chalk in case they would need it as reference, so they moved the furniture out of the kitchen. Molly kept bumping into things, forgetting that he wouldn’t just pass through anymore, and he was still a bit unsteady on his feet, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Caleb turned off some of the lights in the apartment, and lit candles along the kitchen counter to create a warm glow. It took him a minute of scrolling on his phone to find what he was looking for, but soon music filled the room. They came together, Caleb’s arm around Molly’s waist and Molly’s head on Caleb’s shoulder, and just swayed to the rhythm. Tomorrow would bring new challenges and questions and decisions to be made, but tonight was just for them.

_I don't want to set the world on fire   
I just want to start a flame in your heart _

_In my heart I have but one desire   
And that one is you, no other will do _

_I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim   
I just want to be the one you love   
And with your admission that you'd feel the same   
I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of, believe me _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus quarantine brings the conclusion to yet another story 💜


End file.
